The purpose of a live bait “well”, container or bucket is not only to maintain the bait in good, lively condition, but also to ensure that the bait can be readily, easily and speedily retrieved under exigent conditions encountered when fishing with a fishing rod in one's hands and fish suddenly exhibiting a feeding frenzy. To meet the demands of such conditions, it is critical that the structural components of the “live well”, container or bucket and the manner in which they interact are so designed as to allow a fisherman to choose a bait from those swimming around in the well, container or bucket, under conditions which require that only one of his hands is used to pick out a bait, whether a small fish such as a minnow or a shrimp for use, while holding his fishing rod in the other. It is well known that, when fishing, it is inconvenient and impractical to lay down the rod while attending to retrieving bait from the bait bucket.
A live well for bait is typically substantially larger than a more commonly used container such as a bucket. Whether a live well, a bucket or other container, each may be used in a wide variety of sizes and each may have an arbitrary cross-section chosen for convenience in the particular environment in which the bait is to be used. Commonly used bait containers have cross-sections which are either polygonal or circular; the polygonal ones are typically either rectangular or square; and the ones with a circular cross-section may be either cylindrical or tapered. Most preferred and commonly used is a bait bucket having a cross-section which is either square, rectangular or circular, and one with a circular cross-section may be tapered from top to bottom, the area of the bottom being substantially smaller than the area at the top of the bucket. In the following description, the term “bucket” is used simply because a bucket is commonly used.
A commonly used bait bucket comprises a bucket in which a perforated or porous bowl-shaped container, referred to herein as a colander or perforated basket (hereafter “colander”), is removably, slidably inserted. By “bowl-shaped” is meant that the bowl is approximately concavo-convex. The bucket, in use, is filled with water to a desired level, sufficient to keep the bait alive and in good health for as long as the water is adequately aerated. The bucket is usually covered with a close-fitting substantially rigid lid which is provided with a central opening, at least large enough to allow a person's closed hand or fist to go through the opening to pick out a bait. The opening in the lid is provided with a hinged, perforated or porous flap which allows free flow of air into and out of the bucket while keeping the bait caged in the bucket. A combination of an aerator or “air-pump” powered by a battery is positioned at a convenient location outside the bucket, and an air-hose from the air pump is immersed in the water so as to bubble air under pressure through the water.
An additional feature in a preferred live bait bucket is a drain through which used or stale water can be drained out of the bucket either before it is replenished, or while it is being replenished with water, whether the water is salt water, brackish water or fresh water, and whether the bucket is to be drained on land, or in a boat on the water. Moreover, it is desirable that the drain be opened and closed, with one hand, conveniently, even when the bucket is being drained in a moving boat.
Given the basically simple requirements of an easy-to-use bait bucket, it is to be expected that the ultimate, well-designed, practical, reliable and convenient-to-use bucket would have been marketed and used for a long time. That there have been so many attempts to construct a bait bucket which addresses the problems inherent in the use of prior art bait buckets is evidence that providing the most practical and economical bait bucket for live bait is a difficult challenge.
As will be evident, the difficulty of catching one of only three or four remaining minnows or shrimp in a typical 5 gallon (18.9 liters) bucket, is substantially more difficult than catching one of several dozen swimming in the same bucket. The use of a colander which could be raised and lowered in an aerated bait bucket was disclosed more than a half century ago in U.S. Pat. No. 2,663,115. This construction addressed the requirement that the bait be separated from the water in which they were swimming to afford the fisherman a better chance of catching and using a single bait. However, it is readily apparent that retrieving a single minnow from the water in the minnow bucket disclosed in this '115 patent, necessitates the use of two hands; this requires that the fisherman either put down his rod, or have a second person help.
Comparably old disclosures in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,039,225 and 3,319,372 use a flexible net as a scoop, which again requires the use of both hands. Still other live bait buckets use complicated gating devices to control the flow of water so as to allow the bait to be separated from the water in which they were swimming.
The problems to be solved:    1. It is critical that all operations on the bucket are able to be executed by a fisherman using only one hand.    2. A single minnow or shrimp is to be retrieved from all the bait in the bucket, and all the bait in the bucket is to be presented out of the water, that is, above or near the surface of the water in the bucket. Therefore, all the bait is to be concentrated in the colander, above or near the surface of the water, when a single bait is to be retrieved. In addition to allowing a single minnow or shrimp to be retrieved from the multiplicity of live minnows and shrimp, retrieving all bait from the water at one time, allows a dead minnow to be singled out and discarded as soon as it is discovered, so that it does not foul the water.    3. Where a colander is to be used, retrieval of the live bait from the water is to be accomplished without allowing any of the bait to escape from the colander, for example, by jumping through the annular space between its periphery and the inner wall of the bucket.    4. The colander, is to be raised with one hand, and once raised, with no continued manual force being exerted to maintain its position, its position above or near the surface of the water is maintained, and the colander is not lowered back into the water due to the weight of the bait in the colander.    5. As is often done in premium bait buckets, a drain is provided to permit water from the bucket to be drained, when desired. This is done with a pet-cock which typically protrudes more than 1 inch (2.54 cm) from the outer surface of the bucket; alternatively, instead of opening a valve, a cap is removed by unscrewing it from the surface of an exteriorly threaded nozzle which projects more than 1″ (2.54 cm) from the outer surface of the bucket. Though either the valve can be opened with one hand, or the cap can be removed with one hand, the location of the exteriorly protruding drain requires that a person bend all the way down to the surface on which the bucket rests, to open the drain. Further, it is easy to damage the exteriorly protruding drain or valve when the bucket is inadvertently banged against the inside of the boat; and it is also easy to lose the cap after it is removed. The seriousness of this problem has, to date, not been recognized. No disclosure in prior art bait buckets suggests how to solve this problem.
Commonly used, aerated live bait buckets which use a colander suffer from one or more disadvantages caused by one or more of the foregoing problems but the buckets are nevertheless in general use. The novel live bait bucket of this invention provides a solution to all the foregoing problems.